I have a share with over 2500 files. When I try to mount it in finder, I have to wait a long time for anything to happen. It will show up on the desktop, but it won't let me access it. I often get -36 errors. Everything in this share is used in Terminal, so I don't need finder to access it. I created a directory with a name starting in a dot. Then, I typed
mount -t smbfs //username@server/sharename /.mountpoint It still takes a while to mount, but it is faster than finder.
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20030903105430902